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moted to the vacancy, a place would have been left open for James Otis, of Barnstable, at that time speaker of the house of representatives, a good lawyer, to whom a former governor had promised a seat on the bench; but Bernard appointed Thomas Hutchinson, originally a merchant by profession, subservient in his politics, already lieutenant-governor, councillor and judge of probate. A burst of indignation broke from the colony at this union of such high executive, legislative, and judicial functions in one person, who was not bred to the law, and was expected to interpret it for the benefit of the prerogative. Oxenbridge Thacher, a lawyer of great merit, a man of sagacity and patriotism, respected for learning, ability, purity of life, and moderation, discerned the dangerous character of Hutchinson's ambition, and from this time denounced him openly and always; while James Otis, the younger, offended as a son and a patriot, resigned the office of advocate-general, and, by his eloquence in opposition to the royalists, set the province in a flame. But the new chief justice received the iterated application for writs of assistance, and delayed the decision of the court only till he could write to England.

The lords of trade had matured their system. They agreed with what Dobbs had written from North Carolina, that "it was not prudent, when unusual supplies were asked, to litigate any point with the factious assemblies; but, upon an approaching peace, it would be proper to insist on the king's prerogative." "Lord Halifax," said Secker of that nobleman, about the time of his forfeiting an advantageous marriage by a licentious connection with an opera girl, “Lord Halifax is earnest for bishops in America; and he hoped for success in that "great point, when it should please God to bless them with a peace." The opinions of Ellis, the governor of Georgia, who had represented the want of " a small military force to keep the assembly from encroachments; of Lyttelton, who, from South Carolina, had sent word that the root of all the difficulties of the king's servants lay "in having no standing revenue,' were kept in mind. "It has been hinted to

me," said the secretary of Maryland, "that, at the peace, acts of parliament will be moved for amendment of government and a standing force in America, and that the colonies, for whose protection the force will be established, must bear at least the greatest share of charge. This," wrote Calvert, in January, 1760,"will occasion a tax;" and he made preparations to give the board of trade his answer to their propositions on the safest modes of raising a revenue in America by act of parliament:

1760.

"For all what you Americans say of your loyalty," observed Pratt, the attorney-general, better known in America as Lord Camden, to Franklin, "and notwithstanding your boasted affection, you will one day set up for independence." "No such idea," replied Franklin, sincerely, "is entertained by the Americans, or ever will be, unless you grossly abuse them." "Very true," rejoined Pratt; “that I see will happen, and will produce the event."

Peace with foreign states was to bring for America an alteration of charters, a new system of administration, a standing army, and for the support of that army a grant of an American revenue by a British parliament. The decision was settled, after eleven years' reflection and experience, by Halifax and his associates at the board of trade, and for its execution needed only a prime minister and a resolute monarch to lend it countenance. In the midst of these schemes, surrounded by victory, the aged George II. died suddenly of apoplexy on the twenty-fifth day of October, 1760.

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CHAPTER XVII.

THE KING AND THE ARISTOCRACY AGAINST THE GREAT GEORGE III. DRIVES OUT PITT.

COMMONER.

1760-1761.

1760.

Oct.

THE new king went directly to Carleton house, the residence of his mother. The first person whom he sent for was Newcastle, who came in a great hurry. None knew better than those who were to receive the duke that Pitt had forced a way into the highest place in the ministry over the heads of an envious and unwilling aristocracy ; and that, under a reluctant coalition, there rankled an incurable alienation between the members of the administration itself. Newcastle had no sooner entered Carleton house, than Bute came to him, and told him that the king would see him before anybody and before holding a council. Compliments from me," he added, " are now unnecessary. I have been and shall be your friend, and you shall see it.' The veteran courtier caught at the naked hook as soon as thrown out, and answered in the same strain. The king, so young and so determined to rule, praised the loyalty of Newcastle, and said: "My Lord Bute is your good friend; he will tell you my thoughts at large." Newcastle, in return, was profuse of promises; and, before the ashes of the late king were cold, the faithless duke was conspiring with the new influences on and around the throne to subvert the system by which Pitt had not only restored, but exalted his country. On meeting the council, the king appeared agitated and embarrassed, and with good reason; for his speech, which had been drawn by Bute, set up adhesion to his plan of government as the test of honesty; calumniated the war as "bloody" and expensive; and silently abandoned the king of Prussia. Newcastle, who was directed to read it aloud,

seemed to find it unexceptionable; and lowered his voice at the offensive parts, so that his words could not be distinguished. "Is there any thing wrong in point of form?” asked the king, and then dismissed his ministers; and the declaration was projected, executed, and entered in the council-books without any previous notice to Pitt.

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The great commoner was 'extremely hurt; he discerned what was plotting; and, vainly seeking to inspire Newcastle with truth and firmness, he insisted that the address should be amended; that it was false to say the war had been to England a bloody war; and, after an altercation of two or three hours with Lord Bute, he extorted the king's reluctant consent to substitute these words: "As I mount the throne in the midst of an expensive but just and necessary war, I shall endeavor to prosecute it in a manner most likely to bring on an honorable and lasting peace in concert with my allies." The amendment gave to the address dignity and nationality. The wound to the royal authority rankled in the breast of the king. He took care to distinguish Newcastle above all others; and, on the third day after his accession, against the declared opinion of Pitt, he called Bute, who was but his groom of the stole, not to the privy council only, but to the cabinet.

On the last day of October, the king published a proclamation "for the encouragement of piety, and for preventing immorality;" and in a land where, for nearly fifty years, the king's mistresses, in rank the peeresses of the highest aristocracy, had introduced vulgarity with licentiousness, and had rivalled the ministry in political influence, the serious people of England were fired with loyalty towards a monarch who had been trained in seclusion as chastely

as a nun.

1760. Νον.

To the draft which Hardwicke and Pitt had made for his first speech to parliament, he on his own authority added the words: "Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton." A greater concourse of "the beauty and gentility" of the kingdom attended him at parliament than had ever graced that assembly. "His manner," said Ingersoll, of Connecticut, who

1760.

was present, "has the beauty of an accomplished speaker. He is not only, as a king, disposed to do all in his power to make his subjects happy, but is undoubtedly of a disposition truly religious." Horace Walpole praised his grace, dignity, and good-nature in courtly verses, and began a correspondence with Bute. "All his dispositions are good," said Secker, the archbishop; "he is a regular, worthy, and pious young man, and hath the interest of religion sincerely at heart." The poet Churchill did but echo the voice of the nation, when he drew a picture of an unambitious, merciful, and impartial prince, and added:Pleased we behold such worth on any throne,

And doubly pleased we find it on our own.

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“Our young man," wrote Holdernesse, one of the secretaries of state, "is patient and diligent in business, and gives evident marks of perspicuity and good sense." Nothing can be more amiable, more virtuous, or better disposed than our present monarch," reported Barrington, the secretary at war, a few weeks later; "he applies himself thoroughly to his affairs, and understands them astonishingly well. His faculties seem to me equal to his good intentions. A most uncommon attention; a quick and just conception; great mildness, great civility, which takes nothing from his dignity; caution and firmness, are conspicuous in the highest degree." "The king," said the chief proprietary of Pennsylvania, "shows great steadiness in his resolutions, and is very exact to all his applications, whether of business or recreation." But Charles Townshend described "the young man as very obstinate;" and four months had not passed, when Pratt, the attorney-general, predicted "a weak and inglorious reign.”

The ruling passion of George III., early developed and indelibly branded in, was the restoration of the prerogative, which in America the provincial assemblies had resisted and defied; which in England had one obstacle in the rising importance of the people, and another in the power of the oligarchy. The man at maturity is but the continuation of the youth. From the day of his accession, he displayed an innate love of authority, and, with a reluctant yielding to